Brexit Box

With stories of last weekend’s March for the Future dominating the headlines in recent days, Concrete is here to give you an update on all the latest Brexit developments.

On 20 October, over 700,000 protesters gathered in a march to London’s Parliament Square, organised by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, demanding a people’s vote on the final Brexit strategy.

Giving a speech at the event, Vince Cable, leader of the Liberal Democrats, emphasised the Brexit generation gap, saying that ‘[the younger] generation is being betrayed by mine,’ highlighting a sentiment felt by many student protesters present at the march. However, personal accounts from UEA students at the march suggest some change in the generational dynamics since the referendum, with ‘lots of people, families, elderly, [and] students’ in attendance.

The impressions from UEA students at the protest was mixed. Callum Fairhurst, a third year International Development and Politics student, said that ultimately he believes the protest was ‘useless,’ and that ‘it won’t do anything to actually progress a people’s vote. Theresa May has sat on her promise of having another vote, so I don’t think it will do anything.’ While Rachel Crockhart was hopeful that the protest may have an effect on decision making, due to ‘the sheer amount of people there.’

Mrs May has continued to make concessions to the original deadlines, stating that she would consider extending the transition period of the UK’s exit from the EU beyond the two years from Brexit Day, and she would be willing to drop the time-limit on the Irish backstop clause, making it possible that the UK could be indefinitely bound to the bloc’s customs rules. These developments have sparked an outcry from hard Brexiteers, with some pro-remain members of the Conservative party expressing their criticism towards the direction of negotiations.